1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope button unit and an endoscope.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, endoscopes have been widely used in a medical field and an industrial field. In the medical field, endoscopes are cleaned and disinfected by cleaning/disinfecting apparatuses after use.
When an endoscope is cleaned and disinfected by a cleaning/disinfecting apparatus, a valve unit provided in an operation portion or the like is detached, and is discarded or cleaned and disinfected. The endoscope is provided with various buttons such as an air/water feeding button and a suction button which an inspector operates, and the buttons and the valve units are detached from the endoscope.
When the valve units are detached from the endoscope, it cannot be sometimes judged whether the valve units are already used, or unused by an appearance, and therefore management of used valve units and unused valve units is important.
Consequently, there are proposed such a valve unit that when the suction valve unit including a suction button is detached, a part of the valve unit is deformed and the valve unit can be confirmed to be already used at a glance, and a valve unit that is made incapable of being fitted to an endoscope again, as in the disclosures of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-175175 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2013-183935.
For example, in the suction valve unit, a part of the attachment portion to be attached to a cylinder which is provided in the operation portion of an endoscope has a deformable or a breakable configuration. The attachment portion is pinched with fingers and the attachment portion is torn off, whereby the part of the attachment portion is deformed or broken, and the suction valve unit can be detached from the operation portion.